1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming system or apparatus such as a composite digital copying machine of a plain paper copying machine, a printer, and a facsimile apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional plain paper copying machine (PPC) is designed to record an image formed on a paper original on a recording medium such as a paper sheet in the hard copy form.
A conventional printer is designed to record image information or code information received from a conventional printer or personal computer (PC) on a recording medium such as a paper sheet directly or upon code/image conversion.
A conventional facsimile apparatus (FAX) is designed to expand compressed/coded image information received from other party to record the information on a recording medium such as a paper sheet in the reception mode. In the transmission mode, the FAX photoelectrically converts image information on a paper original into image data, and transmits compressed code information of the image data to the other party.
Assume that the user wants to produce 10 copies of a printout. In this case, there are two options: (1) sending the original data to the printer so as to print out 10 copies, and (2) producing 10 copies of the printout by using a copying machine.
The problem in the former case is that the printing speed is relatively low because the printer generally takes much time to perform code/image conversion. Therefore, it takes much time to obtain desired products, i.e., 10 copies.
The problem in the latter case is that an image deterioration tends to occur in copying the printout of a complicated image because reading and image formation steps are performed again in each copying operation. As a result, a desired copy quality cannot be obtained in many cases.